


Pride Come Home

by Leonawriter



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: F/M, Future Fic, Gen, Homecoming, M/M, Team as Family, references redeemed Lotor, the ships are more implied but they are definitely there
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-01
Updated: 2017-02-01
Packaged: 2018-09-21 06:00:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,236
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9534893
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Leonawriter/pseuds/Leonawriter
Summary: The return to Earth isn't quite how any of them had planned. But things have turned out better than they could have hoped. And if the team is anything, it's a family that's going to pull through this together.





	

If asked - or just left to talk - Lance would say that his dream homecoming would include touching down in his Lion in somewhere either populated enough that everyone saw him in order to congratulate him and throw him - and the other Paladins, by extension - a parade. Or, it meant going home to Varadero, to see his family, and showing them all Blue, and regaling them all with tales of his bravery.

There were other things as well, but those were the main highlights.

"Keith! Incoming on your eight!"

This, he had  _long since_ realised, was nowhere near being his dream homecoming. 

They'd all thought that it was safe to go home -  _all_ of them. It was a good thing the Castleship had stayed in orbit, or Allura and Coran wouldn't have been close enough to warn them that a Galran general with way too much ambition for his own good had just appeared.

In some ways, it kind of reminded him of those times when they'd had to go up against nearly a whole fleet of fighters, trying to keep them at bay with just the Castle's drones, and usually at least one Paladin down because something needed fixing. Except that this time, it was a matter of 'don't let the fighters near the atmosphere, or they'll be able to attack  _Earth_.'

A stream of fire took the fighter in front of him out of commission before it had a chance to hit him, one that he'd only missed for this long because he'd been so distracted with the  _other five on his tail_. 

"Thanks, Keith."

It was a much needed and unexpected relief to hear Shiro over the comms telling them that there was incoming from  _below_ , fighters they all realised had to be  _Garrison_ piloted, because no one else used that motif, and no one else had been training their space exploration teams how to manoeuvre like  _that_. 

He whooped, and went back into the fray with a grin.

...

"I'm not worried," she was saying. While pacing. "Really, I'm  _not_. I mean, I'm excited, if anything. I was right. About everything. And we're going home. Things can finally get back to normal."

Which was what she wanted. It was what she'd  _always_ wanted. Hacking into the Garrison in the first place, becoming Pidge Gunderson at all, rescuing Shiro - even finding the Green Lion and becoming a Paladin of Voltron. _This_ was what she'd always wanted. 

To go home, with her family, and go back to her mom, and they could sit around at the table again and she could listen to her dad talk about space peas and Matt could go on and on about whatever he was interested in this time.

She could go back to being  _Katie Holt._

"It's all right to be worried, Pidge."

Her brother's voice shook her out of her thoughts. She glanced up at him, the vision of how much older he was than when he'd left jarring with the memories she had. He walked with a limp, now, not noticeable on his good days, but more so when he was stressed. A limp that Shiro had given him, in order to save his  _life_. 

"But I've got nothing to worry  _about!_ Things are going to be exactly how I always wanted. So why aren't I  _happy?"_

"Maybe because what we want doesn't always turn out quite how we'd planned," Matt said, smiling at her. "I learned that the hard way. But that doesn't always mean it's a  _bad_ thing either. Things are just... different."

She looked up at him - still a couple of inches shorter than her big brother, but at least she'd grown at all in the past two years - and felt her eyes water, not for the first  _or_ last time.

She threw herself at him, and comforted herself with the way it was definitely  _Matt_ , the way she wasn't dreaming, the way his hand patted her awkwardly.

"I want to see mom again. I want to show her you and dad. And the rest of the team. I want her to know we're okay."

Matt held her closer, and it wasn't the first time she realised just how much he must have missed her, too.

"Well, we're definitely getting there, Pidgeon."

"I  _told_ you not to call me that!"

But she can't help smiling even as she complains.

...

"Princess,  _relax._ You've dealt with far worse situations than Earth crowds. You'll be fine."

She couldn't  _help_ but be tense, however. This wasn't just another planet that they were stopping off at in order to help them recover from ten thousand years of Galran occupation, or to smooth things over in the aftermath. This was  _Earth_. This was the home planet of her Paladins.

She  _could not_ allow things to go wrong.

The mice squeaked up and their feelings of reassurance added to the concern in Shiro's eyes and his hand on her shoulder, and she let out a breath.

"If I say something wrong here, it won't be as easy as- this is your  _home_. A battle in the skies above them was the first they knew of life outside of their own world, and I don't... I don't want them to have a bad opinion of the galaxy based on something that I said or did wrong."

Shiro huffed, smiling fondly at her. 

"Well, if anything goes wrong, there's always the fact that you brought back all three members of the so-called 'failed' Kerberos mission, as well as three missing Garrison cadets an a fourth they probably didn't even  _know_ was missing, knowing Keith."

She sighs, remembering how far they'd come, and what it had been like finally finding Pidge's lost family, one piece at a time. 

"Have you talked to Keith, by the way?"

The concern bled back into Shiro's expression, even as he leaned into her. 

"I have, and he said that he's doing this the 'ambassadorial way', like you suggested. In his words, 'would you rather the first friendly Galran face they see is someone Lotor sent'.  I can't say I disagree, however. He has a point."

It's the mental image of the new Galran king either sending one of the strange beings he  _actually_ trusted, or even coming himself, that sets her off laughing and gets rid of some of the nerves at last. The former prince might have elevated his status from someone she would be all too happy to see dead to someone she could see as an ally, but that would never destroy the fact that he had acted in some extremely ridiculous ways, and his confidants had always been quite... eccentric themselves.

"No, no. You're right. He does have a point. And on that note, you should remind me to thank him for this later. I know that this must mean something to him, separating himself from the rest of his species like this."

Shiro shrugged.

"In a sense, we've all been separated and changed by what we've been through, for better or worse. But the universe is definitely better off for it, and that's what we have to focus on explaining to all of these people. As long as we remember that, there won't be any trouble."

"Right," she said, straightening up and determinedly brushing off her Altean gown yet again - a dress that she remembered that her father had liked her wearing, before the war had come. "We're doing this together."

"Like always, princess."

He took her by the arm, and she remembered the way that they had started to dance just like they were now, back on a planet they'd helped several months ago, now.

...

As parties went, it was more or less the same as anything you could expect, Keith supposed. A whole load of people milling around in the middle of a big room, a bar on one side, and Hunk still ecstatic at the fact that he could go back to using Earth foods as well as the alien ones he'd had to figure his way around.

The fact that they'd been gone two years, saved the universe, he'd found out that he wasn't even all  _human,_ and come back only to realise that most of them still weren't legally able to drink at the so-called 'party' just happened to be one of life's great ironies.

His gaze slid across the room once more, picking up on four familiar suits of armour - Shiro was with Allura and Coran, talking to someone and explaining things that didn't translate well. Pidge was still with her brother and father, though it was just as much the fact that they seemed to be talking science with someone he  _thought_ he recognised as one of their old instructors, as it was that it'd been hard to pry the Holt family away from each other once they'd been found. Not that he could blame them. And Lance - Lance, he didn't have to look for, because he could hear Lance talking to a large group of people, and he  _knew_ he was exaggerating, because he'd  _been_ there when Lance had done that, and- he looked away the moment Lance realised that he was looking, not wanting to be dragged in.

"Feels good, doesn't it. We're all back home, you know?"

Keith turned his head to where he'd noticed Hunk sidling up a moment ago. 

"In case you'd forgotten, I'm still purple."

"I thought you were from Texas, though?"

He rolled his eyes. 

"I grew up in  _Arizona,_ thank you. And you know perfectly well what I mean. I think I even recognise a few of the people Lance is talking to over there. Apparently, we took the same classes. But they look at me, and I'm just-"

"Purple?"

He sighed. There was so much more to it than that. He knew who he was now, after all, and it was more than this - he knew who his  _mother_ was, for one thing. And even though it hadn't started out that way, being Galran wasn't exactly a big deal anymore. Or he hadn't thought it was. 

Until he'd been put in a room with himself, Allura and Coran being the only non-humans there, and he was reminded of just how  _different_ he was. How Earth had never really been his home the way it was for the others.

"I think," he said, hesitating slightly, "I think I'm going to go back out there, when all of this is over and I'm not needed to play representative here anymore."

Hunk nearly choked on one of the canapés he'd made.

"You're joking, right? Tell me you're joking. Because if you're not joking, I know someone who'll be really pissed off with you. Actually, no, scratch that,  _several people_ , Keith. Think about what you're doing. I mean, trust me. This isn't just going to be playing representative or anything. We've got plans. I don't get how you got the idea you weren't a part of them, buddy. 'Cause you are. You so are."

Keith shrugged awkwardly. 

"It's okay? You don't have to - you guys have your own families. I'm not expecting you to- what? What's so funny?"

Hunk had doubled down in laughter, noticeable enough that Lance was glancing their way and gesturing something that looked a lot like  _what's up with him?_ , which Keith could only shrug at, far too confused to give a decent answer himself.

"Keith.  _Bro._ I think by this point you and Lance  _are_ family. Unless you think everyone's suddenly gonna forget what happened on Solima, and everything _after_ that, which, you know, I really doubt. Whether you like it or not, you're kind of  _stuck_. And my moms already had him over for the holidays that one time, so they're  _definitely_ going to want to meet you and Pidge and, uh, everyone. And I don't think Mrs. Holt's done thanking you for helping look after her baby girl and lead the rescue mission for Matt yet. I don't think she'll  _ever_ be done thanking you for that."

He had to remind himself to breathe evenly, but found himself wishing he'd left the glamour up when he realised that his ears were playing traitor and lying flat against his head at Hunk's words.

He could still remember Pidge trying to leave the team after only a few days. Everyone talking about what they wanted to do after defeating Zarkon. Lance talking longingly of home. 

He'd never really been able to relate. He hadn't been able to fit in with any of them, in that respect. He didn't have a family to go back to on Earth like the rest of his team did, but he also hadn't had his home completely destroyed, like Allura and Coran had, so even though they didn't really have anywhere else to go either, it wasn't the  _same_.

"Aw, man. I think you need a hug."

"No, I do  _not_ , I don't-  _Hunk."_

"Your fluffy ears were saying you were lying, Keith. You  _so_ need a hug right now."

He had to admit, he didn't mind it all that much. Although, it would have been much more comfortable if they hadn't been in their full Paladin armour still.

"So.... still wanna go off on your lonesome the moment you get the chance, or are you gonna stick around?"

"Hah. I don't know - I'd always been kind of curious what Varadero's like."

**Author's Note:**

> The references to Lotor are due majorly to the fact that a friend and I started theorising as to what he'd be like well before he was ever mentioned and Tumblr took it and ran with it, and our version was more or less 'dark foil to Lance, more curious about his dual Galran/Altean heritage than he is interested in Allura as a consort, has massive insecurities', and so on. Basically, Space Zuko. And I just love playing around with these ideas far more than the 'pure villain' ones. 
> 
> As for ages, well - Pidge is now sixteen, Lance and Keith are nineteen, and Hunk is twenty (given that his was the first birthday we're aware of, I'm putting him down as the oldest of the Cadet group). Shiro is twenty seven. Given I'm assuming the Galaxy Garrison is in America, and the legal drinking age is usually around 21 (correct me if I'm wrong there because of state differences) then, yeah. You can risk your life in space but you can't have the spiked punch.
> 
> And you can make up for yourselves what happened on Solima.


End file.
